Just Follow Me notches first stakes triumph with Algoma

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Just Follow Me followed all of her rivals heading into the turn before closing strongly on the outside to land the $100,000 Algoma, the first of four Tapeta stakes for graduates of Canadian yearling sales on Sunday’s Woodbine card.

Just Follow Me ($20.10) covered the seven furlongs on the Tapeta in 1:24.78 after collaring the favored Little Teddy late in a three-quarter-length score under Emma-Jayne Wilson. Tabloid Material faded to third after setting soft fractions.

“It didn’t pan out exactly the way I thought it would on paper,” Wilson said. “The main thing with my filly was just getting her within range, so that she could kick. She wasn’t happy on the inside and the moment I got her peeled to the outside, she really leveled off, shifted three gears, and blew by them.”

A daughter of Old Forester, Just Follow Me earned $60,000 in her first stakes victory for owner Mike Coll and trainer Bill Tharrenos.

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Junior Hot Shot won the male equivalent of the Algoma, the $100,000 Elgin, in pace-pressing style over a wide-closing Yacht Boy, in a seven-furlong clocking of 1:24.35.

Justin Stein rode Junior Hot Shot, a son of Souper Speedy, for the T and T Racing Team and trainer John Ross, who also trained third-place finisher Garofoli.

“This horse has a lot of heart and a lot of talent,” Stein said. “He’s really versatile. He showed a lot of grit down the lane holding off a challenger. He really knows how to win.”

Souper Supreme ($12.50) led all the way in the $201,000 Muskoka for 2-year-old fillies, scoring by 4 1/4 lengths under Patrick Husbands.

“She’s an upcoming little star,” Husbands said.

Souper Supreme is a half-sister to 2023 King’s Plate victor Paramount Prince and shares the same connections as that now 4-year-old - owners Gary Barber and Michael Langlois and trainer Mark Casse. The daughter of Souper Speedy covered 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:18.20 and banked $120,000 in her stakes debut.

Favored Skylight Caper finished second ahead of Periwinkle in the 10-horse field.

Husbands also won the $201,500 Simcoe for male juveniles in front-running style aboard the maiden Scorching, who prevailed by five lengths over Kekoa, with Shadow Realm back in third. The seven-furlong event was timed in 1:17.57.

Trained by John Charalambous, the Mo Town colt Scorching picked up $120,000 for owners Paul Braverman and Timothy Pinch.

*** Saratoga-based Outlaw Kid annexed Sunday’s $150,000 Vice Regent Stakes for the second year in a row, in near course-record time under Sahin Civaci.

The five-furlong inner-turf dash set up nicely for the George Weaver-trained Outlaw Kid. Silent Reserve and Rockcrest dueled through suicidal splits before he came charging from fourth to win by 2 1/4 lengths over Forester’s Fortune, in a time of 55.83. Light the Lamp was another head back in third in the seven-horse field of Ontario-breds.

By red-hot sire Violence, Outlaw Kid ($4.50) earned $90,000 for the partnership of R A Hill Stable and SGV Thoroughbreds.

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